CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Vanderbilt concluded the opening round of The Ruth’s Chris Tar Heel Invitational in a three-way tie for sixth place Friday at the UNC Finley Golf Course.
Vandy’s performance placed it just one stroke shy of the top-5 and four strokes back at 286 of leader Virginia Tech (-6) at 282.
“I thought our team played with a lot of heart today,” head coach Greg Allen said. “They went out and posted a solid round.”
Celina Sattelkau made her season debut and set the pace alongside Tess Davenport for the Commodores. The duo concluded the opening-round at 2-under par-70 and tied for ninth. Duke’s Erica Shepherd leads all competitors with her 6-under-par 66 effort.
“Obviously, there are two more days but I’m proud of how we started,” Allen said.
Louise Yu (+1) and Virginie Ding (+1) wrapped the day deadlocked for 39th, with Ariel Yu rounding out the lineup for the Dores (+5) at 77th.
Vanderbilt made 16 birdies with Davenport finding five on the day.
“It was great having Celina back out there and she showed some serious toughness. Tess was impressive as well.”
The event will resume at 7:30 a.m. Saturday. Live scoring can be found here.
